This invention relates to tools for installing clips or fastenings, especially spring clips, to hold together assembled structures.
Schroeder, U.S. Pat. No. 1,664,529 discloses a tool for clamping a rail anchor onto a railroad rail. Schroeder discloses an elongate handle having a pivoting jaw member with an enclosed hook for gripping and holding the opposite end of the anchor, the near end of the bar being faced with a jaw for gripping the anchor and displacing it into clamping relationship with the rail.
Hansen, U.S. Pat. No. 2,036,140 disclosing a T-wire staple bender, so described as fastening wire clips against the flange and web of a T-cross section fence post discloses a handle having a fixed jaw for gripping the far side of the fencepost, a gap within the jaw for curbing the wire clip around the near side of the fence post; and an extended pivoting hook with a specially shaped cross section for pulling the free end of the wire clip down across the web of the fence post. This tool would tend to hold together a T-connector only by reason of the curve of the tool (31 prime) being accurately machined to the width of a particular T as gripped by the tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,558 to Spaulding discloses a spring clip tool having two opposed jaws for compressing a spring clip together into a clamped position, the jaws containing a specific cam mechanism for driving the spring clip down around an extending post (22) and then up into joined relationship with the spring clip.
A related Spaulding patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,187 discloses a simpler form of clamp having opposed jaws specifically for the spring clip; this device relates specifically to the particular described structure of the face of the jaws which is claimed to facilitate the overlapping and clipping action of the spring clip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,279 in the course of claiming a particular method of using C-rings to clamp upholstery (automotive seat covers) to a particular form of anchor track for easy manufacture of an upholstery item, shows the use of a simple pivoting jaw device (50) to clamp the C-clips between the fabric and the anchor track. This device draws the two pieces to be joined together as well as fastening a clip between them.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,976 to Simpson is an apparatus for assembling seam roofs, pertinent in regards to sheet metal seams. This is a disclosure of a particular form of clamp and two simplified hand tools, a curved bar, and a hand held U-channel for pressing the sheet metal clamps down against the curved bar.